Glen Sather’s learning curve may be 12 years long but he is finally getting it right this trade deadline. Rick Nash remains buried in a backwater like Columbus because Sather and 29 other GM’s around the league were not willing to pay a king’s ransom for him. Good on them. Howson’s was demanding compensation as if Nash was a reincarnation of Gretzsky. He’s far from that.

There are those who will debate whether Nash would have meshed with Torts’ system or fit in on this very tight knit team. No matter. What is important is that Sather didn’t sacrifice our home grown talent or mortgage the future for one player who may or may not have been a difference maker. Good on Glen.

Meanwhile, the Rangers continue to get it done with defensive hockey. With the status remaining quo at this trade deadline, Ranger fans will have to resign themselves to the fact that the Rangers may not score many goals from here on out. Thank God for Mac Truck and Shaggy. Pray God Carl Hagelin doesn’t run out of gas before the playoffs.

While the Rangers have played a little shaky of late, King Henrik and his Knights stood tall against the evil pretenders from across the River. This game had more clutching, grabbing, picking and cheap shots by the Devils then I’ve seen in any game this season. The Devils got away with murder tonight. Glad the Rangers prevailed in the face of yet more egregious officiating. (Walkom and Watson, surprise!)

That piece of shit Clarkson should be suspended for the charge he took at Brandon Dubinsky. Clarkson didn’t just leave his feet, he looked like he was going for the high jump record at the Melrose games. He’ll probably get the bullshit cursory $2500 fine from Shanahan instead of the suspension he deserves. I lose a little more respect for Shanny everytime I see punks around the league just getting a slap on the wrist.

Lastly, maybe Marty Brodeur should be on the Red Carpet at next year’s Academy Awards. He handed in another great acting performance tonight. Trying to draw the penalty, he launched himself backwards and  flopped down on the ice as though he’d been tasered. His act is getting old, just like Marty. I can’t wait until he retires.

Maybe then Marty and his boyfriend, Mike Milbury can opening up a school for Ham Actors together.

Congratulations to King Henrik on his seventh consecutive 30 win season, not to mention his impending fatherhood. God Bless the Lundqvists!

Posted under New York Rangers

Apparently no one told the Rangers that Lent has started. Rather then eating the Fishsticks tonight, Fishstick fans get another free bowl of chili gratis the Rangers.

And after watching the Rangers play tonight, one might think they have given up winning for Lent. First, they lose in Pittsburgh on Fat Tuesday. Now they embarrass themselves once again at the Mausoleum.

The Rangers sit precariously at the top of the Eastern Conference but for how long? Looks like the usual slide down standings that has been late in coming this year is close at hand.

With the exception of Marian Gaborik. who did basically all you could ask of him, most of the other Ranger should have stayed on the bus. Were they once again guilty of arrogance, coming in to the Mausoleum to play another lowly team?

Michael Del Zotto needs to get his head out of his ass. Perhaps if he sits out a game or two in favor of Eminger, Torts can send him a message to stop with the stupid lateral passses in the neutral zone and the home run passes that get picked off 90% of the time. And the stick passing penalty was really bush league.

Tortorella really should shoulder most of the blame for starting Biron in the first place. Did Torts himself take the Fish too lightly? He gave Henrik the night off when he clearly should have started him. If Torts has so much confidence in Biron, why wouldn’t he give Marty a shot against his old team tomorrow at the Garden?

Compound wrong choice of goalie with choosing the wrong players in the shoot out and it’s clear that the burden of responsibility for this loss hangs on Torts. Callahan? Mitchell? Richards? Really John? He could have used Stepan, Anisimov or Hagelin. He tempted fate and lost. So did the Rangers. Can a coach be bag videoed?

Posted under New York Rangers

The New York Rangers are en fuego. Top of the Eastern Conference. White Hot.

No more flying under the radar for our Rangers. With their victory last night in Boston, the Rangers are two points away from leading the entire league. They shut out the reigning Stanley Cup Champions. If it weren’t for the Red Wings winning their a record 21st consecutive home game, the Rangers would be featured as the lead story on every hockey website on the planet.

After being AWOL since after the lockout, the Rangers have started scoring with the man advantage. It was the only aspect of the game where the Rangers were seriously lacking. Being an uneasy denizen of the Blue Seats, my skepticism dies hard. Is this latest flurry of power play goals an aberration or will it become the norm?

Mike Keenan may tout the Rangers as the next Stanley Cup Champions. Being superstitious to a fault, I wish he hadn’t done that.  To their credit, every single Ranger player when being interviewed is on message. “We are only concerned about the next game”. Torts has that mantra embedded deep inside their psyches. That’s a good thing.

The Rangers have accumulated an incredible 79 points in 55 games. If 95 points are what’s needed to make the playoffs this season, the Rangers need 16 more points out of their remaining 27 games.  That’s 8 more wins. With the stretch run being a highly condensed schedule with the majority of those games being against division and conference rivals, nothing should be taken for granted. Every team they play will be looking to take them down.

Don’t believe me? Check out the HockeyRodent’s RealSchedule. The Tree Rat explains it all.

Let’s hope that, unlike Jimmy Cagney, the Rangers will survive the battle and not fall from the top. I’ll thank those in the media, on all the blog sites, to stop handing out trophies and awards until the season is over. We should all follow Tort’s suggestion and take each period one at a time.  If you don’t listen to Torts, you might get a grapefruit pushed into your face. Just like Virginia Mayo.

Posted under New York Rangers

I am not going to get overexcited that the Rangers scored three power play goals against the Flyers this afternoon. After all, it was the Flyers and Bobrovsky not the Red Wings or the Penguins. Call me when the Rangers consistently score on 20% of the power play chances and then I’ll get excited.

I don’t get it. Are the players on this team learning impaired? What did the coaching staff do to finally make the light bulb go on over the Rangers heads. Did pounding a power play strategy into their brains finally infiltrate their gray matter?

Talk about a 180. I’m sure there are those of you out there who would encourage me not to question why, to  just sit back and enjoy the ride. But doesn’t this turn around beg the question? The Rangers were 50 % with the man advantage this afternoon!

What did they do so differently today that haven’t done in the last 7 years. Was Bobrovsky just a sieve? Was the Flyer penalty kill at fault? Where did the Ranger go right?

Let’s review, shall we.

Power Play Goal Number One – Ryan Callahan from Richards and Gaborik

Power Play Unit One. Rangers break into the Flyers zone on the rush. Richards on right wing passes to Gaborik  at center. Gaborik sees Callahan all alone on the left, top of the circle. Stephan has on Flyer on him. The other three Flyers are stacking the slot, watching Gaborik and no one has marked Cally. Flyer Penalty Kill Fail.

Power Play Goal Number Two – Marian Gaborik from Richards and Stepan

Power Play Unit One. Again off the rush. Stepan, near the goal line to the right of BoBo, passes the puck back to Richards at the top of the right circle. Richards passes to Gaborik in the slot, with no Flyer marking him, for the redirection.   Flyer Penalty Kill Fail.

Power Play Goal Number Three – Ryan Callahan from Del Zotto and Gaborik

Power Play Unit One. This time the Flyers have a chance to get set up to defend but Braydon Coburn gets burned because he doesn’t swivel his head to see Callahan parked on Bobo’s doorstep ready for the put home on the pass from Del Zotto. Bad Braydon. Flyer Penalty Kill Fail.

Analysis complete. It is as I suspected. There was a total breakdown of the Flyers penalty kill. The lesson to take away from this is that if you don’t give the Flyers enough time to set up, they are vulnerable off the rush. Philadelphia is not a particularly fast team. Faster teams perhaps would not have made the same mistakes.

To the Rangers credit, they did  look much more organized. The first unit of Richards, Callahan, Gaborik, Stepan and Del Zotto all looked good together. They weren’t chasing the puck along the boards or  behind the net because Philadelphia wasn’t really fore checking. All the action was happening in front of Bobrovsky, not behind him.

Also, when the Flyers did get set up on power play goal number three, the Rangers kept their feet moving and cycled well down low. Most importantly, they had a man at or arriving near the net to take a pass for a shot. That’s a tremendous improvement over the pass- pass- pass- shot and out of the zone bullshit we’ve been watching for more years then I care to count.

Three power play goals in one night does not make up for a dearth of power play goals all season. If the Rangers want me to believe they have resolved their power play issues, they must sustain their scoring with the man advantage against faster teams with a better penalty kill then the Flyers.

All this aside, do the Rangers have the Flyers number or what? Nice to see all that orange and black go down to defeat for the fifth time!

Posted under New York Rangers

Gotta love old Helmet Hair. Kerry Frasier, on his TSN blog, responded to emails by saying he thought the waived off goal last night was good. Gaborik was making every attempt to stop and was pushed into Fatso Marty by Volenchenko.

To add insult to injury, Marty “Lawrence Olivier” Brodeur delivered one of his best diving performances. It was almost as good as when he thrust himself backward when Avery breathed on him. The “Greatest Goaltender of All Time” deserves an Oscar for last night.

Here, read it for yourselves.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=387268

“Is this type of play something that we want to see eliminate a team from playoff competition or result in the presentation of the Stanley Cup? I think not.

I know how hard it is to determine these plays in real time. Give the referees the same benefit that you and I have to slow it down and look for the smoking gun.

Place a monitor at the timekeeper’s bench where they already have a communication device and give them a second or third look to determine the legitimate scoring of a goal.”

Instead of waiving off the goal, thereby rendering the play unreviewable, the Ref should have blown his whistle and called for a replay. The league needs to amend Rule 69 to demand that any questionable play or goal occurring in the final minute of a game be reviewed automatically.

Once again, the league and its officials have brought negative attention down upon themselves. Last week it was faulty time keeping. This week a good goal waived off.

Unfortunately, NHL Hockey has such a small audience in North America not many people, except Ranger fans, care. Imagine if the Refs waived off the Giants touch down at the end of the game because the Giant receiver broke the plane with his butt. Damn sure the play would have been reviewed or the outcry would be deafening.

One point can determine the difference between making the playoffs or not, from winning a division title or not (remember the 2006 Rangers), from getting home ice advantage in the playoffs or not. Every point counts. You need look no further them last years Carolina Hurricanes.

John Tortorella can’t call out the officials but Kerry Frasier can point out the faults of the league and the officiating. After all, he’s no longer on the payroll. They can’t fine Kerry’s pension, can they?

Posted under New York Rangers